Powieść wagnerowska – powieść muzyczna? (Gabriele D’Annunzio – Élémir Bourges – Paweł Huelle)
Wagnerian novel – musical novel? (Gabriele D’Annunzio – Élémir Bourges – Paweł Huelle)

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the genre of the Wagnerian novel, one of these phenomena which are a testament to the wide and diverse reception of Richard Wagner’s work in the European culture. The composer was admired as a charismatic persona, the author of excellent works of musical drama and the creator of sophisticated aesthetic concepts. In novels such as The Triumph of death (Trionfo della morte) by Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Twilight of the Gods (Le crépuscule des dieux) by Élémir Bourges and Sing Gardens (Śpiewaj ogrody) by Paweł Huelle, the main foci of interest are plots of Wagner’s musical dramas and not their musical score. Even descriptions devoted to instrumental parts clearly indicate the tendency to treat them as narrative stories. Much more interesting than the sound of Wagner’s music seems to be (to the narrators and heroes of the Wagnerian fiction) an implied message that flows from musical dramas such as Tristan and Isolde, Valkyrie or the fictive The Pied Piper of Hamelin. For the recipients of Wagner’s works, these operas become an indication of their own conduct, usually directing them to self-destruction and death.

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